On July 8, 2013, Lovett Services truck driver Jon Wright lost his life when the truck he was driving plummeted more than 100 feet down an embankment in Portland, Oregon.
According to a press release from the Portland Police Department:
The Major Crash Team has performed a preliminary investigation and learned that the commercial pumper truck was being driven northbound on 112th Avenue from Mount Scott. This is a very steep, downhill roadway. Witnesses told police that it appeared that the driver could not slow down as the truck was going down the hill towards Foster Road.”
Just prior to the bridge over Johnson Creek, the driver lost control of the truck and it drove off the East side of the roadway right after crossing the bridge. The truck crashed through a guardrail and the vehicle continued approximately 120 feet before crashing into the embankment. The 60,000 pound gross vehicle weight vehicle struck hard enough to disconnect the attached tank holding the mud sludge.
Sarah Price’s car was in front of Wright’s truck just before the crash.
“I looked in my mirror and I saw the truck, and then it went flying by me and off the road, it was that fast,” Price told KPTV.
Price and her family believe what Wright did that day, veering off the road, saved the lives of others. Price, and many others, are calling Wright a hero.
“I am very very grateful for him saving my life, every time I pass this road I will of course think of him. I’m sure I will think about him for the rest of my life. He has a special place in my heart.”
Price’s family says they’re eternally grateful for Wright’s sacrifice.
“I really do grieve for his loss myself. I don’t know the man, but I consider him a friend,” Price’s partner Chad Cook told KPTV. “I would have really liked to know him as a person, I’m sad that will never happen.”
Price’s family wrote a letter to Wright’s family, thanking them for his heroic act.
“My brother knew something was going to happen, but didn’t want any other family to have to suffer like ours is now, he made the ultimate sacrifice,” Jeff Wright, Jon Wright’s brother, said,
Police are still investigating what caused the fatal crash. They have not determined what caused of the accident.
Wright is survived by his wife Tuesday Rae; sons, Jesse Loy, 25, and William John, 8, and three sisters and two brothers.
Jon Wright was a true hero. RIP, driver.
A memorial fund has been set up at www.giveforward.com to help Wright’s family.